DH and I have traveled to Georgia to visit family. We are staying a while (a couple months). There are horses in a small paddock down the street.
When we drove by the first morning, I commented that one of them looked a little thin, then I said it might be because he is an older horse who has trouble keeping weight on. Yesterday morning, I decided to walk down the street and go visit with them.
I walked up to the fence and whistled at them, and the two in this front small paddock came running up to see who I was (I know, most owners don't like others even just petting their animals over the fence. But I figured to follow the old rule 'better to ask forgiveness than permission'). All the way up to the fence and stuck their heads through eating grass on the other side. I was HORRIFIED when I saw them up close. They are so thin, and their coats were so greasy, dirty, and covered with salt from sweat I did not even want to pet them. The horse that looked thin from far off is a 2 on the Henneke scale. The other is a little bit better but I wouldn't say a 3. They didn't look terribly thin from far off because their bellies are huge with what I'd guess to be a bad case of worms. The only thing not completely horrifying was their hooves, which looked like they've had some care in the last 6 months, or possibly their feet are just growing that slowly from lack of nutrition. I have yet to see anyone feeding or handling these horses, and their paddock (about 1.5 to 2 acres) is full of manure just everywhere.
There is a third horse in an adjoining paddock, and this is very odd. This horse is well taken care of. Maybe a teeny bit on the thin side, probably a 4 on the scale. His mane has been trimmed/pulled, if he has worms at all it is not noticeable, hooves well cared for, shiny coat, and his paddock has had the manure removed.
My guess is that this is a boarding stable (not really a stable, a couple of paddocks with two rinky dink run ins that need some serious TLC) and the owner of the property just doesn't care how their boarders care for these horses.
I'm not sure what to do about the emaciated horses, or if I should even do anything? I'm not sure I can stand to look at them everyday without at least knowing I tried to help. Here is what I have thought of so far:
1) Knock on the door of the house and introduce myself, explain I'm an out of state horse person looking to find out if I can help out around the barn, groom horses, muck, etc. Just a horse person hoping to spend a little time with horses, and casually ask about the "hard keepers"/"old guys"/"thin ones". Maybe find out some info about the situation and if the owners care, possibly give some suggestions on what can be done to help them. I highly doubt the owners care given that the horses don't look to have been groomed for a few years. The problem with this scenario is that as DH pointed out, if I do decide to call authorities afterwards they will know who it was. I am not sure that matters though.
2) Just call the authorities outright. I am not sure if they will do anything though. I know cops drive by all the time (granted, as I said, the horses look fine from a distance) and obviously nothing seems to have been done so far. I know in AZ that it is pretty much useless calling authorities. As long as the owner has feed somewhere and the horse has water, they won't do anything.
3) Do nothing? I'm not sure I can live with myself.
Advice please? I have never dealt with this before. I'm not sure how to go about it or if there is anything to be done, aside from my own physical efforts to help the horses provided the owners allowed me to.
When we drove by the first morning, I commented that one of them looked a little thin, then I said it might be because he is an older horse who has trouble keeping weight on. Yesterday morning, I decided to walk down the street and go visit with them.
I walked up to the fence and whistled at them, and the two in this front small paddock came running up to see who I was (I know, most owners don't like others even just petting their animals over the fence. But I figured to follow the old rule 'better to ask forgiveness than permission'). All the way up to the fence and stuck their heads through eating grass on the other side. I was HORRIFIED when I saw them up close. They are so thin, and their coats were so greasy, dirty, and covered with salt from sweat I did not even want to pet them. The horse that looked thin from far off is a 2 on the Henneke scale. The other is a little bit better but I wouldn't say a 3. They didn't look terribly thin from far off because their bellies are huge with what I'd guess to be a bad case of worms. The only thing not completely horrifying was their hooves, which looked like they've had some care in the last 6 months, or possibly their feet are just growing that slowly from lack of nutrition. I have yet to see anyone feeding or handling these horses, and their paddock (about 1.5 to 2 acres) is full of manure just everywhere.
There is a third horse in an adjoining paddock, and this is very odd. This horse is well taken care of. Maybe a teeny bit on the thin side, probably a 4 on the scale. His mane has been trimmed/pulled, if he has worms at all it is not noticeable, hooves well cared for, shiny coat, and his paddock has had the manure removed.
My guess is that this is a boarding stable (not really a stable, a couple of paddocks with two rinky dink run ins that need some serious TLC) and the owner of the property just doesn't care how their boarders care for these horses.
I'm not sure what to do about the emaciated horses, or if I should even do anything? I'm not sure I can stand to look at them everyday without at least knowing I tried to help. Here is what I have thought of so far:
1) Knock on the door of the house and introduce myself, explain I'm an out of state horse person looking to find out if I can help out around the barn, groom horses, muck, etc. Just a horse person hoping to spend a little time with horses, and casually ask about the "hard keepers"/"old guys"/"thin ones". Maybe find out some info about the situation and if the owners care, possibly give some suggestions on what can be done to help them. I highly doubt the owners care given that the horses don't look to have been groomed for a few years. The problem with this scenario is that as DH pointed out, if I do decide to call authorities afterwards they will know who it was. I am not sure that matters though.
2) Just call the authorities outright. I am not sure if they will do anything though. I know cops drive by all the time (granted, as I said, the horses look fine from a distance) and obviously nothing seems to have been done so far. I know in AZ that it is pretty much useless calling authorities. As long as the owner has feed somewhere and the horse has water, they won't do anything.
3) Do nothing? I'm not sure I can live with myself.
Advice please? I have never dealt with this before. I'm not sure how to go about it or if there is anything to be done, aside from my own physical efforts to help the horses provided the owners allowed me to.